“What is the Majority Text?”……The Majority Text, also known as the Byzantine and Ecclesiastical Text, is a method of determining the original reading of a Scripture by discovering what reading occurs in a majority of the manuscripts. As the Greek New Testament was copied hundreds of times over 1500 years, the scribes, as careful as […]

“What is Verbal Plenary Preservation?”…"Verbal Plenary Preservation" is an argument from the discipline of study referred to as textual criticism, which is the study of what an ancient copy of an original manuscript says and from there determining what the author meant. Ultimately, biblical textual criticism seeks to determine what the original, divinely inspired autographs […]

“What is the Synoptic Problem?”…When the first three gospels are compared-Matthew, Mark, and Luke-it is unmistakable that the accounts are very similar to one another in content and expression. As a result, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the "synoptic gospels." The word "synoptic" basically means "to see together with a common view." […]

“What is the TextusReceptus?”……The TextusReceptus (Latin for "Received Text") is a Greek New Testament that provided the textual base for the vernacular translations of the Reformation Period. It was a printed text, not a hand-copied manuscript, created in the 15th century to fill the need for a textually accurate Greek New Testament. As the Christian […]

“What is source criticism?”……Answer:Source criticism is a specialized field of biblical studies that seeks to determine the sources used to develop the final form of the biblical text. The source critic reads the book of Genesis, for example, and asks, "Where did the author get this information? What written documents and/or oral traditions contributed to […]

“What is the Deutero-Isaiah theory? Was the Book of Isaiah written by multiple Isaiahs?”……Answer:Most Bible scholars are in agreement that Isaiah was the sole author of the book that bears his name. However, there are those "liberal" scholars who are skeptical about anything that points to supernatural inspiration of the Bible. In fact, they go […]

“What is the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture? What does it mean that the Bible is sufficient?”……The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture is a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith. To say the Scriptures are sufficient means that the Bible is all we need to equip us for a life of faith and […]